Finding Your Balance - A Sneak Peek For You!
I wanted to speak to you today about balance. Ironically, as I sat down to write something to you, I found myself buried in proposals that had to get out, deadlines that had to be met, a vehicle that broke down, a son who needs to be moved to college, a daughter with a busy schedule, and a wife who I desperately wanted to sneak off with for a day to enjoy her waning summer vacation.
One of my looming deadlines was to re-read my next book, so that we can send it off to the printers in the coming weeks. (can I tell you how excited I am about this one?!) I was only on the first chapter when I came to the part about Karl Wallenda. The story seemed so appropriate for this ezine, I decided to give you a special treat, and share with you a small portion of my next book.
“Karl Wallenda, patriarch of the world famous “the Great Wallendas,” once told the story of how he became a tightrope walker to a reporter. As a boy in Germany, he answered an ad asking for someone who could do a handstand. Simple enough, he knew he could do a handstand. However, it was what the ad didn’t say that changed everything. Louis Weitzman, the prospective employer and circus performer, took the boy up a ladder to a platform 40ft. in the air. Taking a few steps across the high wire, young Karl in tow, he said, “Just walk behind me and when I bend a little, you get up and do a handstand on my shoulders.” Looking down at the ground below, Karl shook his head and said he couldn’t do it. “You do it.” said Weitzman, “or I’ll shake you off the wire.” Karl did do it and he went on to be one of the most memorable high wire acts in the world before falling to his death in 1978.
Sometimes we all need this push to get going. We need someone to shake the wire to get us moving so we can learn what it takes to keep our balance and move across the beam. Karl Wallenda did not believe in safety nets. He once told an interviewer that “Gott give us the courage and gift of talent to do our acts and when he be ready to take us, he will.” There are no safety nets in life either, but you also have courage and your own special talent to take you across the cavern.
Balance is imperative to your sense of control and confidence as well as how much happiness and success you have in life. You cannot spend all your energy just hanging in there. When people are out of balance, they feel overwhelmed, out of control, guilty and inadequate. They experience disruptions in their sleep, such as insomnia, increases in bad habits, like smoking and drinking, can be extremely irritable, prone to quick mood swings, anxiety and depression. Are you experiencing any of these? Do you have the need to do everything, be everywhere and solve everyone’s problems? If so, it’s time for you to start incorporating ways to balance yourself. Jessye Norman, the famous opera singer, said that problems arise when you have to find a balance between what people need form you and what you need from yourself. Many of us struggle with allowing our own needs to take precedence over those close to us.”
Life is a balance. You must always walk the tightrope between all of your commitments, and what is most important to you. If you’re feeling stuck, it may be time to shake your wire a bit, re-evaluate what you are doing with your time, and re-work it or trim it a bit to make it more manageable for you.
